Dead Lies
by Dead Pan Contest
Summary: Eric Northman is known as the foremost expert on detecting lies. When Sookie joins his team her first case leads her and Eric back to her hometown to find a murderer, but while working with Eric will she find more in him than just an employer?


**The Dead Pan Contest**

**Title: Dead Lies**

**Story/movie parodied: Lie to Me**

**Characters: Eric, Sookie, Hoyt, Pam, Sam, Lafayette, and a few others.**

**Disclaimer: **Kids aren't mine I just decided to toss them into the interesting world of Lie to Me, which is also not mine.

**Summary: **Entry for the Dead Pan Contest. Eric Northman is known as the foremost expert on detecting lies. When Sookie joins his team her first case leads her and Eric back to her hometown to find a murderer, but while working with Eric will she find more in him than just an employer?

^v^

**Dead Lies**

SPOV

Standing in the lobby I had to make a conscious effort to control my excitement and nervousness. I had been waiting for this day ever since I sat in my college auditorium to hear Eric Northman speak to us criminal justice students on the importance of watching for micro-expressions during interrogations. I had decided to become a criminal justice major when my friend Tara's parents were killed during a carjacking. The car was found, but the killers never were. I wanted to help others find the justice that Tara and her brother never got.

Now I stood in the lobby of The Northman Institute getting ready to interview for the only open position they had on staff at the moment, and luckily for me it was a place on Northman's personal team. I looked around the room and noticed five other people waiting for their interview. I was confident in my skills at reading expressions, but I knew it would be a tough job to nail because Eric Northman was known as the human lie detector.

"Good morning candidates," a blond woman said as she stepped into the lobby. "My name's Pam Ravenscroft. I am Dr. Northman's associate. Unfortunately, Dr. Northman was called away and will not be able to conduct the interviews today, but I will be speaking with each of you to see if you are even worth his time." I was disappointed, but I was here to get a job, not just see Dr. Northman. "You three ladies," Pam said, pointing to a group of girls on the other side of the lobby. "You may leave. Dr. Northman doesn't have time for your type. This is a serious business and you are obviously just here due to Dr. Northman's looks." I had to stifle a giggle when the girls looked offended and stormed out. It was now just me and two men left for the interview.

"Now that they are taken care of," Pam said turning back to us. "Dr. Northman is in fact in, he just doesn't like to deal with people who are not going to take our work seriously. Follow me and we will get started." We followed Pam down the hallway to a conference room. "Have a seat, we will be calling you in one at a time. We have a series of tests for you go through. If you pass them you will have an interview with Mr. Northman. He is getting started on a new case at the moment and has very little time. Mr Threadgill come with me; you will go first."

I sat calmly in the conference room waiting my turn. The other man in the room introduced himself as William Compton before taking a seat across the table from me. Though it looked like I was looking around I was busy reading my competition. He spent most of his time staring at my chest, which always drove me nuts. Yes, I am gifted in that area, but I am more than just a pair of breasts.

"Miss Stackhouse, you are next. Mr Compton you may leave. We don't need men here that spend all their time ogling the female staff," Pam said entering the room. It made me a bit uncomfortable knowing that there were obviously cameras in the room, but he was acting unprofessional and I was glad they caught him on it.

I followed Pam into a side room that looked like a computer geek's wet dream. There were fancy looking computers around the room and projector screens on the walls. I didn't know much about computers and was a little worried that they were going to test my minimal skills.

"No worries Miss Stackhouse. We just want you to watch the screen and tell us what facial expressions you see."

"Ready, Pam?" a young man at a computer asked. She nodded and a face showed up on screen. I watched it and the expression flashed up for about a second and then was gone. Pam looked at me, waiting.

"Sadness." Pam looked over at the young man who nodded that I had got it right.

"Again," Pam said.

"Anger."

"Disgust."

"Fear."

It went on for a good five minutes or so before Pam called it quits. I had gotten every expression correct on several different faces.

"Well done, Miss Stackhouse. If you would follow me," She turned to leave the room but paused and looked back at the young man. "Barry don't forget we have an appointment with the mayor of New Orleans in half an hour."

I was getting a decent tour of the building following Pam through the halls. She stopped outside a door that had Dr. Eric Northman stenciled on it. Not bothering to knock Pam just walked in, ushering me inside before her.

"Here she is, Eric. Take her with you on the Bon Temps case." Before either of us could say anything Pam turned around and left the office.

"So you must be Sookie Stackhouse?" Dr. Northman said standing up and stepping out from behind his desk. I didn't recall him being that tall when I saw him last year, but then again the auditorium was full and I had been at the back. When I had last seen him his hair was cropped close to his head but now it brushed his shoulders. I thought the longer hair suited him much better. He was indeed a handsome man and had a face that the masters of old would have wept to create. The most striking feature though was his eyes, a deep blue that seemed to reflect the very essence of his soul.

"Please, call me Sookie," I said finishing my observations of him and sticking out my hand to shake his.

"Well Sookie, it looks as though you passed Pam's tests as well as my own if you are here." He had a firm handshake which I liked, some men these days had such weak grips.

"Dr. Northman."

"Eric, please."

"Eric. Do I take it that I have the job?" I asked. I hoped that I did but I wanted to make sure before I assumed anything.

"If you want it. We have been looking at you for some time now. We get information sent to us about every student that attends one of my lectures. We want the best and brightest here and you have been on our radar for some time now. It was no coincidence that a job opened up on my team a few weeks after you graduated."

"So the others out there?"

"They got the message that a job was open too. We planned to hire you but figured we should give others the chance as well. Now let's get some paperwork out of the way so we can get to Bon Temps."

"Bon Temps? Really? I was raised there. What is the case?"

"There has been a ring of murders there and the Sheriff needs our help in finding the killer. They have a suspect, but he claims he is innocent."

"I can understand Bud needing help. This must be the first serious crime that town has seen. I'm surprised I haven't heard anything of it yet, my Gran usually calls me about this kind of thing."

"Well then it is a good thing you will be helping with this case since you know the town's people."

"I'm not sure how that will help," I said as I looked over the paperwork he handed me. "Since I could read expressions so well when I was growing up, I was pegged as Crazy Sookie. No one could lie or hide anything around me because I could read the guilt on their faces and call them out on it."

"You'll fit in just fine here," Eric said taking the papers that I had signed and placed them on the corner of his desk. "Come along. I'll drive, we'll get there faster."

It was indeed faster with Eric driving. We got to the Bon Temps sheriff's office in about a half an hour, a drive that usually takes me a little under an hour. We spent the drive talking about what types of things I would be doing in my new job. Eric was a bit jealous when I told him that I had never had to study facial expressions, and that spotting them had come naturally. Apparently he traveled all over studying different cultures and peoples studying their facial expressions and reactions to things.

"Why, Sookie Stackhouse," Bud said when we entered the station. "What brings you here?"

"I work for Dr. Northman," I replied, motioning to Eric who was standing next to me.

"Your Gran never said you got a new job," Bud said, ignoring Eric to get the new gossip about my life.

"Just started this morning. Didn't even get a chance to tell her yet," I replied.

"Sheriff Dearborn," Eric said stepping forward. "I would like to get to work on your case if you don't mind. My office has several things that need my attention."

"Please, call me Bud. Follow me my office is this way."

"Who are the victims so far?" I asked as we followed Bud back to his office.

"Maudette Pickins and Dawn Green." I remembered both of them. I had gone to school with Maudette and had worked at the local bar with Dawn before I left for college.

"Any connection between the two?"

"Aside from Hoyt Fortenberry? Not that we can find."

"You think Hoyt did this?" I asked.

"He is the only one last seen with the two before they were killed." Hoyt had been a few years ahead of me in school. He hung around with my brother for as long as I could recall. My brother Jason had gone off to school leaving Hoyt here all alone, well at least alone without a best friend. All through high school my brother and Hoyt had battled for top man whore in their class. My brother has changed since he went to school for a law degree, he is now married with a son and a second child on the way.

"I've known Hoyt for years. He may be as dumb as a brick and sleep with any woman who would have him, but he is no killer."

"Well that is what we are here to find out," Eric said looking over the case file that Bud had handed him. I read the file over his shoulder. There wasn't really much that would help us determine if Hoyt was lying. It told us the basics, who died, how they were killed, where and who found them, the boring stuff that we really didn't need.

"I think we are good to talk to the suspect now," Eric said putting the file on Bud's desk. Bud lead us out of the office and toward the holding cells. "Sookie did you bring the video camera in?"

"No, I can go get it if we need it." Eric tossed me the keys and I raced out to the car. Men, always thinking of things last minute. I grabbed the video camera bag off the passenger floor and raced back to the holding cells.

Eric had me set up the camera so that it was fixed on what was visible of Hoyt above the table.

"You look nervous Hoyt," Eric said sitting down across from him.

"Wouldn't you be if someone accused you of killing two women?" Hoyt asked.

"Not if I knew I didn't do it," Eric replied. "Now why don't you tell us what happened the night of Maudette's death and we'll go from there."

Hoyt walked us through what happened starting from when he picked up Maudette from work to when he left her house after sex later that night. Eric remained quiet the entire time, leaving me to ask all the questions. Once we were done going over his time with Maudet we moved on to the night of Dawn's murder. I watched Hoyt closely and saw no signs of him lying or hiding anything as we talked.

"He's not your guy," Eric said when we were back in Bud's office. "The only thing wrong with him is that he is a man whore. No, Hoyt isn't the killer, but it is someone who knows him. They want you to think that he is the one behind it and not think to look at anyone else. I think Sookie and I should wander among the town's folk and see if we can figure out who is behind this."

"We'll need a cover. People in this town are wary of strangers," I said.

"You said you grew up here, correct?" Eric asked.

"Yes."

"Any relatives live here?"

"My Gran, but I don't see..."

"It's simple. We pretend that we are dating and you are bringing me home to meet your Gran. That would give us a reason to be here, and since we are good at detecting lies we will be good at hiding this."

"I don't know about this, Eric," I said nervously. "I would hate to deceive my Gran, and the whole town about how I know you. Heck, _I_ hardly know you seeing as we just met today."

"We will go back to Shreveport and collect stuff for you to stay overnight. You can stay the night with me and call your Gran about us coming to visit. We can do a crash course learning session about ourselves and then work from there." I had heard about Eric's strange habits, but this was going a little overboard in my opinion. Then again I wouldn't mind getting to know my idol a little bit more, so how could it hurt?

"Fine, we'll get my things and then stay at your place for the night."

^v^

We stayed up until the early morning hours. I had called my Gran the moment that we reached Eric's two story home and arranged to visit her the next day. I had been glad I packed a few different options in clothing as Gran insisted that we stay the night. Gran was always inquiring about my love life.

I lay in Eric's guest bedroom wide awake, even though it was a little after four in the morning, thinking over my strange day. Just twenty four hours ago I was tossing and turning in my bed thinking about the interview I would have at The Northman Institute, and now I was an employee on a case with Eric Northman himself and I would be introducing him to my Gran and the entire town as my boyfriend just to catch a killer. I had been surprised to find that we had a lot in common. As I learned more about him I had to remind myself that we were not actually going to be dating. If he were anyone but my boss and idol, I would have though him the perfect guy for me. He was smart, and understood what I did for my job, he was funny and had the same sense of humor that I possessed. According to him he knew how to cook and apparently had owned a bar once thus contributing to his bar tending and dance skills.

I fell asleep that night hoping that things would work out well for us in Bon Temps as I was already starting to have feeling for Eric, and not in the coworker sense.

^v^

EPOV

To say I was shocked when the words left my mouth about Sookie and I pretending to be a couple so that we could find the killer was second only to the shock at my suggestion for us to spend the night getting to know one another at my place. _I don't take women to my place. Heck I don't even go out with women anymore, not since ..._ I pulled my attention from the dark thoughts threatening to overtake me and returned my attention to my morning meditation exercises.

The trouble with my meditation today was that my thoughts kept straying to the woman sleeping just next door. While she had talked about herself the previous evening I had watched her face and body, looking for the tell tale movements and expressions that would give away her lies. I had been surprised to see that she had been honest with me the entire night. I had never come across anyone as honest as she was. I liked it. I spent most of the night reminding myself that I had sworn off women since the tragedy that broke my heart, and that she was now one of my employees.

Giving up on any attempt at a relaxing meditation I headed toward the kitchen to get breakfast ready. As I neared the back of the house where the kitchen was I could smell a delicious aroma wafting through the air, enticing me to seek out the cause of such delights. Stepping through the doorway I found Sookie busy cooking away.

"Good morning," I called as I neared her. She jumped and the pancake she was cooking flew out of the pan. I reached out to save it, but only one side had been cooked and I caught it on the uncooked side sending pancake batter all over myself and the floor.

"Oh dear, I am so sorry," Sookie said quickly wetting a towel and racing over to help clean up the batter. "I didn't hear you get up and so I wandered in here and began making breakfast. I hope that is okay." I laughed as I wiped myself off with the towel.

"It's alright. This is my fault for startling you. It smells wonderful in here. What have you been making?"

"I made a bit of everything as I wasn't sure what you liked. We have toast, bacon, sausage, eggs, and pancakes." She motioned me toward the table and began pulling plates out of the oven and set them before me. It felt rather domestic as she brought me a plate and silverware as well as a cup of coffee and orange juice.

"This looks amazing I don't know where to start."

"Well dig in before it gets cold."

^v^

"I can't do this!" Sookie exclaimed as we neared Bon Temps. "I can't lie to my Gran. I could lie to the town no problem, but not my Gran."

"Sookie you already lied to your Gran," I replied as I turned off the highway. "You told her last night that you were seeing someone and wanted to bring him by to meet her."

"I know, but this will be to her face. I will see her all happy that I am finally going out with someone and it will break her heart to know that it is all a lie. What if she likes you? What if she doesn't? What if she sees right through our lie?"

"Sookie calm down. We will deal with things as they come. If your Gran finds out just tell her what is going on and that she cannot tell anyone."

"Why can't we do that in the first place?"

"Because the lie will work better if only we know about it. There is a greater chance of the killer finding out about us if more people know what we are actually in town for. It is bad enough that the Sheriff knows about it. Now take some deep breaths and calm yourself." I was glad that we were using my GPS system rather than having her direct me to her Gran's house as we would probably be lost by now due to her melt down.

She was finally calm when we pulled into the driveway.

"Oh no, Jason's here." I recalled from our talk last night that Jason was her brother who had moved to New York to study law and was now working in an important law firm up there.

"What's wrong with that? I thought you said last night that you missed him? Now you can catch up."

"No, this isn't good. He is rather protective of me and will cause all sorts of trouble for you."

"I can handle myself." I parked next what I presumed was her brother's truck in front of the house. I helped Sookie out of the car and then grabbed our bags from the back.

"Sookie dear, get up here and give me some sugar," an elderly woman called from the top of the porch steps.

"Gran," Sookie called running to her and wrapping her in a hug. I followed slowly behind and took the time to look her Gran over. Though I knew she was older she looked as though she had several years yet to go. If Sookie looked anything like her when she got older she would still be amazing.

"Now who is this fine looking piece of man you have here?" I liked her all ready.

"Gran, this is Eric Northman. Eric, this is my Gran Adele Stackhouse."

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Mrs Stackhouse," I said taking her hand and kissing the back.

"Please call me Gran, everyone of Sookie and Jason's friends do," Gran said leading us into the house. "Sookie I had completely forgotten that Jason was coming to visit for a few days, so I put you both in your room if that is all right with you two." I was surprised that she was allowing us to stay in the same room together. I know my grandmother never would have let us stay on the same floor let alone the same room as each other.

"That's fine, Gran," Sookie said. I could see the nervousness all over her face, an average person wouldn't notice but I am not the average person when it comes to this.

"Go get settled, lunch will be ready in half an hour," Gran said heading toward the kitchen as Sookie led me down the hall.

^v^

"I don't think this is a good idea anymore."

"Why? Don't like having to share a room with me?" I asked with a smirk.

"My Gran usually is all for separate rooms unless you are married. At the very least I thought she would have me sleep on the couch so you could have the room."

"I'll sleep on the couch if it makes you more comfortable." _Heck I'll sleep outside if it makes you more at ease with this situation._

"No! Gran would never allow that. Besides, she would probably think we had a fight and try and fix it."

"Well then, I will stay in here and sleep on the floor. We need to make this work so we can catch the killer before another person is murdered."

"Would they still attack with Hoyt being locked up?"

"I told Sheriff Dearborn to let it be known that he released Hoyt. There is a party tonight at the local bar, Merlotte's, that Hoyt was going to with some friends. He agreed to call a friend and let them know he wasn't going to go since he just got released and wanted to have a calm night to himself. We will go to the bar and see what we can read from people and if we can figure out who the killer is."

^v^

SPOV

"Girl, you is too late," Lafayette called to me when Eric and I entered Merlotte's later that night. We were early for the party as I wanted to catch up with the owners before it got too busy.

"What do you mean, Laf?" I replied racing to him to give him a hug.

"You surely brought this fine ass man here to distract me in hopes of stealing Sam back," Lafayette said kissing both my cheeks. "Too bad sugar, not happening." He held out his left hand to show the platinum band on his ring finger.

"Oh my! Did you really?"

"It isn't legal but we had the small ceremony a month ago."

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked hurt that two of my good friends had neglected to tell me that they got married.

"Your brother said you were busy with finals in New Orleans so we waited to tell you. We got so busy we never called," Sam said entering the bar from the back offices. "Great to see you, Sook."

"Now who is this hunk of muscle that you neglected to introduce us to?" Lafayette asked, wearily eying Eric up and down.

"Lafayette, Sam, this is Eric Northman. Eric these are my two best friends Lafayette and Sam...um did you guys change last names or anything?"

"We are both Reynold's now," Sam replied. "I have no more family so I just joined his."

"Pleasure to meet some friends of Sookie's," Eric said shaking both their hands.

"How do you know our Sookie?" Laf asked.

"We met at a lecture in New Orleans a few years ago," Eric replied. "We ran into each other a few months ago and started dating." I watched Sam and Laf as Eric spun the lie that we would be telling all of Bon Temps. They both were buying it, by the end even I liked the sound of some of the things that Eric and I had supposedly done together.

"We'll let you get back to work," I said as I saw more people entering the bar. "We'll catch up later, definitely before I head back to Shreveport."

Eric and I wandered behind the bar to get drinks, I had to assure him that it was okay for us to do so as I was like Laf and Sam's little sister. After I got a gin & tonic and he grabbed a Bud we began to make our way around the room. Just about everyone from Bon Temps was there for the party which I found out was for Lafayette and Sam's one month anniversary, those boys would use any excuse to throw a party.

I spent most of my time talking while Eric would wait till he could bring up the murders so we could read their expressions and see if anyone could help us get closer to the real killer. I was surprised at how many thought that Hoyt had killed them. We were getting nowhere with most of the residents, and the stories about what was happening with the case varied depending on who we talked to.

"Alright so this next bunch we are getting to are Hoyt and my brother's old school buddies. Once Jason went off to college and Hoyt thought about leaving they wanted nothing to do with them. I hear they are just a bunch of red neck hicks now who spend most of their time on some land one of them owns on the south end of town, or in here bragging about their glory days on the Bon Temps High football team even though the entire town knows that the four year winning streak was due to Hoyt and Jason."

"So they would be the prime suspects with wanting to set up Hoyt, since your brother isn't here to contradict what they are saying they would figure getting rid of Hoyt would be the way to make the town praise them instead."

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"Well we don't need to guess," Eric said as we wandered closer. "We can read it on their faces if any of them are guilty of trying to frame Hoyt."

"Well if it isn't Jason's little sister Sookie," Steve Newlin called out as we were getting ready to pass the table. I didn't want to start the conversation with them and knew that just by walking past they would say something. I caught the flash of disgust on Steve's face when he mentioned Jason's name.

"Wow, still in this little town Stevey?" I asked knowing that it bothered him when I called him that.

"I told you never to call me that," Steve said, the anger evident in his voice.

"I recall there was a time you asked her to call you that," Andy Bellefleur laughed. The rest of the table, which included the twins Sigebert and Wybert Edgington, their older brother Russell, and my ex boyfriend John Flood, busted out laughing at Steve's reddening face.

"So, I'll bet you all are happy that Hoyt is being looked at for those murders," I said quickly. I saw that most of them were pleased, all except John.

"The whole town knows he did it. That's why he isn't here tonight, doesn't want to show his face," Sigebert said crossing his arms over his chest. Sigebert had to be uncomfortable about something in this conversation, by crossing his arms he was putting a barrier between us to comfort himself, Wybert was in a similar position.

"If Hoyt was dumb enough to be seen with those women before he killed them, he deserves whatever punishment the law gives him. I think it was stupid of Bud to let him out," Steve said the corner of his mouth raising a fraction. "He is probably over hiding at his mother's place." I looked to Eric a moment before turning back to the guys who were still laughing at Steve's comment.

"Well, it was a pleasure as always gentlemen, but I would like to have a dance with Eric before the night is over," I took Eric's hand and led him to the dance floor so we could talk in a little privacy.

"They are definitely in on something," I said as he held me close and moved around the floor. At first I thought it would be uncomfortable to dance with him since he was my boss, but I felt relaxed and safe in his arms. "Sigebert, Wybert, and Steve are all giving suspicious readings to me."

"I agree. Tomorrow we'll go talk to Bud about our findings."

"Shouldn't we go tonight?"

"Did you get any indications that they would do something?"

"Not really, but I think they might try and drive the final nail in Hoyt's coffin soon. Steve is up to something. Did you see the smirk when he mentioned Bud letting Hoyt go? And then bringing up Mrs Fortenberry."

"I did, who do you think they would go after?"

"The one person that Hoyt would visit after getting out of jail. His mother." Eric pulled me over to the door and we stepped outside. He pulled out his phone and handed it to me.

"Call Bud and tell him your suspicions and then we can head back to your Gran's."

"Bud here."

"Bud, it's Sookie. Dr Northman and I have been at Merlotte's for the past two hours and we think that Sigebert, Wybert, and Steve might have something to do with the murders. I would feel safer if a patrol car kept an eye out at Mrs Fortenberry's place tonight. I think they might go after her. Yeah keep them out of sight and with any luck they will be stupid enough to try and get to her tonight. We'll be sure and stop by tomorrow morning. You too Bud, night."

"So?" Eric asked as I handed back the phone.

"They are going to keep watch in hopes that the boys show up. Bud wants us there in the morning to fill us in on what happens and to find out what we learned tonight."

"Sounds good. Shall we head back to your Gran's?" I nodded and followed Eric to his car.

EPOV

"So how did you decide you wanted to do this for a living?" I asked Sookie as we got ready for bed. We were on opposite sides of the bed our backs facing each other to give us some privacy as we changed.

"My friend Tara. Her parents were killed and the ones responsible were never found. It was horrible for her and I wanted to help people like Tara by working to find the culprit."

"What made you decide to study micro expressions?"

"To be honest, your lecture," she said climbing into bed. I looked at her a moment wondering what to do. I had offered to stay on the floor, but I would rather be in bed holding her. _Get a grip Northman you know you are not supposed to like her that way._

"Come on. It won't hurt to share a bed for the night," she said pulling the covers back on the other side.

"My lecture? Really?" I asked climbing in and leaning against the headboard.

"Yeah, it was an optional thing for my class and I had no idea on what I wanted to do in the line of criminal justice so I went to the lecture. It was amazing what you could do with just facial expressions and I had always been good at reading people. So ever since that lecture I studied with the goal in mind that I would one day work for your institute. It worked I guess as here I am employed for you. So what caused you to do this?"

I knew she would ask my reason the second after I had asked her about hers, but oddly enough I wanted to tell her. I had hid this away for about ten years and it was time for me to tell someone, not even Pam didn't know why I worked so hard at my job and she is my half sister.

"I was fresh out of high school and my girlfriend, Holly, and I were getting ready to head off to New York for school in the fall. She wanted to be a journalist and I was looking into police work. We had a little apartment in New York and we moved in a month before school started to get used to the city. I was off at work bar tending at a nearby club when I got word that Holly had been attacked." Sookie gasped and her hand flew to her mouth.

"I rushed to the hospital and got there just in time to say goodbye. I had intended on asking her to marry me the following night." Sookie had tears in her eyes and a few escaping down her cheeks.

"Oh Eric, I am so sorry."

"She was on her way home from the store when she was attacked. She got stabbed several times. Her attacker stole the food she had bought and all the money in her purse."

"Were they able to find the guy?"

"No, I urged the detectives to keep looking, but there just wasn't enough evidence to even begin a search. I started at NYU as she would have wanted me too, but I didn't want to join the police any more. I began to look into other forms of criminal justice and ways to find criminals. That was when I came across a study done by Dr Paul Ekman about how studying the face could help in detecting liars. I began to study everything I could on micro expressions and how to detect lies based on body language and facial expressions. I created the Institute two years ago and my staff and I have helped thousands of people with the training that we have."

"It is sad that to help those people you had to lose someone so important to you."

"I have come to terms with losing Holly." I leaned forward and hovered over her face. "Besides had I not studied and opened the Institute, I would never have met you." My lips brushed over hers a moment before we both moved to bring them together. I didn't know what I was doing, I knew it was probably against some rule that you shouldn't date your coworkers, but at this moment I didn't care. I had feelings for this woman and she obviously liked me too, if her kissing was any indication.

"Eric I ..." she said pulling away. "I do like you, but ..."

"I understand," I pulled back and turned away so she wouldn't read the hurt on my face.

"Eric please." I felt her sit up. She placed her hand on my shoulder and tried to turn me back to facing her. "Let me finish. I do like you, but I think we need to let things go slow. Maybe once this case is over we can go out, maybe dinner and a movie."

"I'd like that," I said turning toward her.

"I don't want things to get weird at work so we need to be sure that things will be good between us before we throw any sex in the mix."

"We'll go at whatever pace you want Sookie." She curled next to me and I wrapped my arm around her. I felt her nuzzle her face into my side as I drifted off to sleep. I knew that this could get complicated, but I didn't care about anything but holding her at that moment.

^v^

We dragged ourselves out of bed the next morning and made our way to the Sheriff's office to find Hoyt leaving the building.

"Hey Sookie, glad I caught you. I owe you and Dr Northman so much for clearing my name. Bud was able to catch Sigebert, Wybert, and Steve trying to get into my mother's house last night. He said that they never would have got there to save her if it wasn't for you guys doing your lie detecting thing and sending him and his officers over there."

"I'm glad they got 'em, Hoyt," I said giving him a hug. "Say hi to your mom for me."

"I will. Thanks again both of you," Hoyt shook hands with Eric before heading off to his truck.

"Well I guess our job is done here," Eric said holding the door open for me.

"I hear you got the boys," I called to Bud as we entered his office.

"Sure did, thanks to you two. We would have just tossed Hoyt away and not bothered to look any further."

"Next time you have a case like this and you want to be sure just give us a call," Eric said shaking Bud's hand. "Sookie and I will personally come out and give you a hand."

"Will do Dr Northman. Take good care of our Sookie. Some of the people around here think she is crazy, but this case proved she is anything but."

"You can count on me," Eric said draping his arm around me and looking down at me. "Ready to head back to Shreveport?"

"We need to stop back at Gran's to say goodbye and then hit Merlotte's for lunch to chat with Laf and Sam before we go."

"I'm fine with that." And I was. I had enjoyed the little bit of time I had with Sookie's Gran and I was even liking her crazy friends, even if they looked at me as though they were trying to undress me with their eyes. I would put up with anything just to be with Sookie.

"Good, let's get going then," Sookie said heading out toward the car. "I am so craving a burger, Lafayette."


End file.
